Octopus Energy took money

Thecrazy1

Hi, I was just wondering if anyone can clarify something for me? I have been with Octopus for about a year, paying dual fuel by monthly direct debit. However, last week they took £152 from my bank. They said it was because they forgot to charge me for Gas for the last year. Are they allowed to just take money without letting me know? Luckily I had the money in the account.

Robin9

You obviously don't check your accounts otherwise you would be aware of this. 
A short letter of complaint will probably result in a compensation payment of £25 for poor communication.

MWT

Thecrazy1 said:

Hi, I was just wondering if anyone can clarify something for me? I have been with Octopus for about a year, paying dual fuel by monthly direct debit. However, last week they took £152 from my bank. They said it was because they forgot to charge me for Gas for the last year. Are they allowed to just take money without letting me know? Luckily I had the money in the account.

There are some technicalities involved, but broadly, yes, since they are doing what you originally agreed for them to do but taking it in one payment instead of 12 separate months.

As Robin says, they will probably throw you a bone with a small credit if you complain.

The better question though is has the payment they have taken fully covered your gas usage to date?

Have they been issuing bills but not collecting the DD, or did they just issue a bill covering the last year?

Ectophile

Under the direct debit rules, they must either take a regular amount from you every month, or else they must tell you in advance before taking any payment.  So it sounds like a breach of those rules.

You could ask your bank to reverse the charge.  But that would just leave you owing Octopus £152 again.  So it would probably achieve very little to do so.

Blot

Were Octopus not asking you for your meter readings and sending you statements based on same ?